This invention has to do with braking devices such as may be suitable for two-wheeled motor-driven vehicles of the motorcycle type, and more particularly is concerned with improvements in the braking response, reliability, rapidity of release and efficiency of disc braking devices for such vehicles.
Doubtless there is no more critical component in a motor vehicle than the brakes. In motorcycles, brakes are an integral part of the vehicle control system being of vital importance in handling the vehicle during cornering and stopping. To an even greater degree than in automobiles there is little room for error or malfunction in motorcycle brake design. Because a motorcycle is relatively light and only two-wheeled, too much braking action at the forward wheel, or too little at the rear wheel can easily mean loss of control, skidding or cartwheeling of the motorcycle. Similarly, hanging-up of the brakes, after release by the motorcycle operator, i.e. failure to swiftly and surely release is likewise hazardous to the operator.
Disc brakes have proved to be desirable for braking control of motorcycles; their braking efficiency and the reliability inherent in the simple engagement of a laterally displaceable frictional braking pad with a wheel-hub-coupled disc has made these brakes essentially standard on motorcycles. Nonetheless the actuators or calipers for disc brakes and the controls therefor have been less reliable and less efficient then the pad and disc aspects of known disc braking systems.